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Friday, June 12, 2015

Twaddle or Not? Pinkalicious and the Perfect Present


Victoria Kann's Pinkalicious and the Perfect Present is a beginning reading book in the I Can Read! series.

Now, I know what you orthodox Charlotte Masonites are thinking. Pinkalicious is twaddle. And I will agree with you on that about some of the Pinkalicious books.

But there are some Pinkalicious books that are sweet. Pinkalicious and the Perfect Present is one of them.

In this book, Pinkalicious and her mother go to a yard sale. Her mother gives her $2 to buy herself a present. Pinkalicious sees one friend buying herself fishing equipment, and one friend buying herself dress up clothes. Pinkalicious finds lots of pink things to choose from, but then she sees a music box that plays a song her mother sings to her at bedtime. She decides to spend her $2 on her mother. The woman running the yard sale happily helps Pinkalicious keep the music box a surprise by giving her an old purse to hide the music box in. The next morning, Pinkalicious gets up early, makes a card for her mother, and hides behind the sofa to surprise her mother. It's very sweet.

No, it's not a Harriette Taylor Treadwell reader, but there are...

 ...three things I like about this book:
  • All of the characters in this book are cheerful and kind, which is not true of all the Pinkalicious books. 
  • I was happy to see a girl buying fishing equipment - something that wasn't princess-themed or bejeweld. Girls can get their hands dirty too.
  • The message is that it feels good to give. 
We do not say that children should never read well-intentioned second-rate books, but certainly they should not read these in school hours by way of lessons.  -Charlotte Mason

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